Mystery Melange

Book sculpture of Poe's "The Raven" by WetCanvas

This year's winner of the T. Jefferson Parker award from the South California Independent Booksellers Association is Naomi Hirahara for Murder on Bamboo Lane. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

The High Plains Book Awards finalists included crime novelists Gwen Florio for Montana and Barbara Joyce-Hawryluk for Wounded, in the Debut Novel category.

The Long Beach Public Library is hosting “LB Confidential: A Night of Noir” reception, Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the Federal Bar. The event is a lead-in to  the Bouchercon 2014 Murder at the Beach conference and features authors Jeffrey Deaver, Simon Wood, J.A. Jance, Edward Marston, and Eoin Colfer.

The late crime novelist Elmore Leonard's vast collection of handwritten notebooks, typed manuscripts and screenplays are headed to the University of South Carolina. Selected samples from the collection went on public display last at the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library on the school's Columbia campus. Event hough the author lived and worked in Detroit, University of South Carolina Dean of University Libraries Tom McNally said "Leonard visited the campus last year, saw its archives of modern American writers and wanted his papers to go there."

Harrogate’s Royal Pump Room Museum is honoring fans of both vintage fashion and classic crime fiction with a new exhibition entitled Dressed to Kill, with a display of costumes created for film and television adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels. Curator Nicola Baxter said: “The Dressed to Kill exhibition celebrates Harrogate’s link with Agatha Christie herself as well as the era in which the dramas are set."

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog posted a listing of Halloween-themed crime fiction.

Also in time for Halloween, Book Riot compiles a collection of interesting facts about Poe’s “The Raven.”

The Wall Street Cheat Sheet posted a list of "8 Must Read Thrillers for Every Gone Girl Fan."

The Star assembled a "crime fiction dictionary," from cozies to hick list, that's basically a helpful bibliography to get you started in the various crime fictions subgenres with some recommendations.

Lucy Worsley, author of the Art of The English Murder, compiled a listing of "Six Essential British Murder Mysteries" from the 1820s through the Golden Age of mystery literature.

Prolific designer Chip Kidd shared some of his favorite crime fiction book covers, with reasons why he likes them.

The Guardian posted a quiz to test your knowledge of fiction's bad guys, from Hannibal Lecter to Nurse Ratched.

The crime poem at the 5-2 this week is "The Writing of Harlots" by Paul Hostovsky.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Bret R. Wright over at Sons of Spade talking about the debut of his new PI Nate Jepson's novel, Nasty; Craig Sisterson reposts a "classic" 9mm interview with Peter Robinson, author of the acclaimed Inspector Banks series; Linwood Barclay tells The Toronto Star why he became a crime writer; Steven Saylor chatted with Crime Fiction Lover about his successful Roma Sub Rosa series of historical fiction novels; and Joe Clifford joined in a Q&A with Omnimystery News about his new suspense novel, Lamentations.